AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He shook his head. “I keep forgetting. What do you know about military ranks?”
“Nothing.”
Liam frowned. “There are officers and enlisted, right?”
“Right. The enlisted are the grunts, the everyday Marines. You start out as a private and move up from there. I just made gunnery sergeant. I hit that one a little early. But a Marine gunner is something else. I have to make my choice now—operations or administration. I don’t want to ride a desk, so I’m choosing operations. To do gunner, I’ll need a warrant officer appointment and command back-up. I need to be absolutely clean.”
“You’re worried that if it gets out you’re involved with us that you’ll never get what you want.” Liam suddenly understood exactly the risk he was asking Hunter to take.
“I’d never get past the board that makes the selections,” Hunter confirmed.
Kat’s eyebrows drew together. “I thought the military had backed off the whole gay thing.”
Hunter gave Kat an exasperated look. “Sure. On paper, anyway. And in reality for the most part. But we aren’t even talking about gay here. The truth is if I were gay it would be easier. We’re talking about me being in a relationship with a married couple. Like I said, the Corps is pretty conservative. That would blow my chances out of the water.”
“Then there is no reason to continue this conversation,” Kat said sadly, moving to push back from the table.
Hunter grabbed her hand. “There is every reason to continue it.”
Kat stared down at his fingers. “I can’t just turn off part of who I am.”
“I’m not asking you to.” Threading his fingers between hers, Hunter said, “I’m asking you to give us a chance.”
She raised her head and met his eyes. “Us? You and I? I don’t understand what you want from me.”
Hunter shook his head before glancing at Liam. Liam clearly read the message there. Your ball.
“All of us,” Liam answered her. “Give all of us a chance.”
Kat snapped her head around to look at Liam. “Right now I don’t know where you and I stand. I’m pissed and sad and tired.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You said that already.” Her tone was flat. Not a good sign.
“I guess I did. I am, though, K-K.”
She studied him. “Why did you do it?”
Liam shrugged. “I just want you to be happy. I want us to be happy. I thought...well, it doesn’t really matter what I thought, does it? It only matters that it didn’t work how I expected, and now you’re hurt anyway, and I don’t know how to fix it.”
Kat shook her head. “You can’t ‘fix’ it, Liam. Hunter is a person, I am a person. You don’t ‘fix’ people like you do problems with a site drawing.”
He frowned. That wasn’t what he’d meant. “Maybe fix is the wrong word. Make it better, I guess.”
Kat pulled free of Hunter’s hold. “Maybe. But I thought honesty and openness was the...the bones of our marriage. How am I supposed to go forward, knowing you lied to me? Liam, you cut me off at the knees.”
Jesus, she really knew how to hit him in his weak spots. He rubbed his hands over his face.
“God, K-K. I didn’t mean to hurt you when I asked Hunter to join us tonight. I just wanted to make our family whole. I think Hunter is that piece.”
Kat leaned back in her chair, staring at him. “I didn’t know that you didn’t think our family was whole.”
Liam froze, realizing he now faced not only one but two tears in the fabric of his marriage.
Silence stretched between them for long moments.
Hunter cleared his throat. “Maybe I should go.”
